The following DataStage 7 versions will continue support through to April of 2013:

DataStage version 7.5.2 and 7.5.3.

QualityStage 7.5.2.

DataStage for PeopleSoft.

ProfileStage 7.5.2.

DataStage ERP Packs for 7.5.2.

What does “Out of Service” mean? It means if you will find it hard to get support for any defects and there will no longer be patches and fix packs for version 7 products. Customers who want to remain on the older versions can purchase a support extension from IBM.

April 2013 will be the end of Service for the remaining version 7 products. Old Ascential products like MetaStage and ProfileStage can be replaced by the Information Server products such as Metadata Workbench, Metadata Asset Manager, Business Glossary and information Analyzer.

What if I am on DataStage 7 Server Edition or DataStage for PeopleSoft? You can upgrade to version 7.5.3 or upgrade to the version 8.x platform and keep using DataStage Server Edition. DataStage Server jobs in version 8.7 look and run much the same as they did in version 7.

The main difference between DataStage 7 and DataStage 8 are the extra tiers and applications that make up version 8. Datastage 7 was a typical two tier application – client and server. It has a file based repository running on UniVerse so there were not a lot of DB admin tasks.

DataStage 8.7 has four tiers:

The DataStage client tier in 8.7 is almost the same as in version 7 with a few extra features in the Designer and a couple extra applications such as the Information Server Manager for deployment and Blueprint Director for the design phase.

The DatasStage Engine is also very similar to what it was in version 7, it is made up of the components needed to run DataStage jobs.

The Services Tier is a set of common services running on an IBM WebSphere Application Server.

The Repository Tier is the database holding metadata for all products in the Information Server suite. It can be DB2, Oracle or SQL Server.

Migration Resources

See the IBM article InfoSphere best practices: Designing a topology for InfoSphere Information Server. When moving from version 7 to 8 you need to consider where the new tiers of Services and Repository will live. You can still install Information Server a single server with everything on the one machine but it is common to have a separate database server for applications that is supported and backed up by the database team such as Oracle RAC.

You can contact an IBM Business Partner to help with the upgrade. You can use my company Certus if you are in Australia or New Zealand. We help customers go through the planning and deployment process for Information Server 8.7.

IBM offers a Concierge Program for free to provide guidance on the best approach to migrate to Information Server, Version 8.5 or Version 8.7. Hundreds of customers have taken advantage of the program.

I’ve used the Concierge service a couple times and they are very good and responsive. They have deep technical expertise in the products and they can guide in the use of the Migration assistance tools.

A lot of customers using DataStage 7 Server Edition will have heard of the alternative version – DataStage Enterprise Edition or DataStage Parallel Jobs. This is the version of DataStage that runs on a massively scalable parallel processing platform and for version 8 customers it is the preferred way of integration data due to the ability to process data faster.

There are two important considerations for version 7 Server Job customers who are interested in parallel jobs and faster processing:

Licensing – how do you obtain the right license to use parallel jobs?

There are different license options for version 8 to choose from:

Normal PVU license are the same as Server jobs where you pay for the amount of processing power on the DataStage server.

WorkGroup Edition – offers a PVU license that is half the price of the standard license but has size limitations. This version is priced to be suitable for smaller companies or departments but it is a good option for Server Edition customers who do not have huge data volumes.

Information Server for Data Warehouse– a license for Information Server products that can be added to one of IBM’s big Data Warehouse Appliances, Netezza or InfoSphere Warehouse. It is a hell of a lot cheaper than any other version but has a license limitation. It can have unlimited sources but the Warehouse is the only target.

DataStage in the cloud. There is a version of DataStage running on a cloud such as the Amazon Elastic Web.

Buy QualityStage instead of DataStage. It comes with many of the functions of DataStage parallel jobs and has the bonus of the data quality standardisation, matching and survivorship.

Migration of jobs – changing the job from a Server Job to a Parallel job can be a big investment in time as there is no automated way to convert job types. My advice is to leave most of the jobs as Server Jobs and to migrate just those that process the most data as these will get the biggest gain from being a Parallel Job.

Benefits of Version 8.7

There are plenty of improvements in Information Server 8.7 that make it better than version 7.

The DataStage Operations Console for monitoring jobs and performance from a web console and tracking ETL metadata in an open database repository.

The Metadata Asset Manager that allows import, staging and impact analysis on new snapshots of source metadata such as database schemas or Cognos packages.

The Blueprint Director for creating information blueprint diagrams that can be linked to DataStage and Cognos assets for very good planning and support documentation.

1 Comments

It's all good and fine and for the record my office contacted IBM however telecom P.O.P FOIA registries seem to have problems of assumptions with regard to who has legal right of data source coding and scripting rights on a variety of topics far removed from office equipment but also construction, film and engineering.
My office, for example, requested details on specs for a piece of IBM hardware (for purchase), to allow the Increase of Discovery options in a physical location that intends to be registered with appropriate policing authority (including FCC, FTC) for not only TQC but also TQE. The collective failure of all and any IT platform(s) regardless, is an infinity battle of the "Box" at best, at worst the desire for any or all IP managers to take "credit" on development concepts that only a few person(s) have legal right to develop (as filed) ... and then wonder why there exists market confusion on any reporting (the economy is fine - only because Party A, B & C were able to maintain asset on balance sheet for Turn Around Management Life cycles by "Miracle Alone" really?! SEVERE ID THEFT & PIRACY filed (Federal Reserve) regardless the Physical Point of Registry whereby some offices are allowed or are taking excessive liberties to "capture economic blessings" but do NOT REPORT to the actual managers of the legal paper work? It's END TIMES on the Economy, Ladies & Gentleman. Your progenitors have decided to "pull the plug" and watch what happens if this office decides to go "off line" ... you may be able to "resuscitate" certain discovery data but without the LEGAL KEYS, 3,000 development projects will come to a grinding HALT! All my posts are registered with International Police and local police, WIPO/OMPI also FBI. Do not jump to conclusions on this or any topic. And please do not extort opinions by "linking in" unreported NACHA (a bank crime) under "habeas corpus rules." I Personally, am not a US Marshal or offshore agent, however if this collective attitude of "whatever" prevails ... be forewarned a prosecution statement has been filed. /s/

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Vincent McBurney is an IBM Champion for Information Integration and has been blogging for many years on InfoSphere software and ...
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Vincent McBurney is an IBM Champion for Information Integration and has been blogging for many years on InfoSphere software and competitors in Information Management, Governance, Data Integration and Data Warehousing.
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